DYSPNCE A IN THE HORSE. 
321 
ance in perfect health, and working regularly. On this day 
he appeared slightly ailing, dull, and off his feed. The 
pulse was also a little accelerated. On the 25th he evinced 
slight soreness of his throat, and coughed. His throat was 
stimulated twice on this day. Early on the following 
morning he was found to be breathing with great diffi¬ 
culty, his respiration being accompanied with a considerable 
snoring noise, and to such an extent that suffocation ap¬ 
peared imminent. It appeared to me to be a case of acute 
laryngitis, and as such I applied at once an active blister 
over the region of the larynx. I saw him again in a few 
hours, and found that the difficulty of breathing had consider¬ 
ably increased. It was painful, in the extreme, to witness his 
sufferings ; his flanks heaved and fell rapidly, and he per¬ 
spired so copiously that he might be said to steam almost 
like a seething cauldron. It was quite evident he would soon 
sink from suffocation, unless something was done to relieve 
him. It, indeed, was one of those desperate crises in which 
the practitioner is in duty bound to employ on the instant 
any remedy, however desperate, that science, or his past 
experience indicates. Accordingly, I introduced at once an 
ordinary tracheotomy tube ; but, strange to say, no relief was 
obtained. After waiting about half an hour, I had another 
tube made of double the calibre of the former one, and inserted 
it into the opening of the trachea, but with the like result. 
He roared nearly as loud through this tube as he did when 
the air was forcing its way through the larynx, and to all 
appearance he could not live long. 
Finding that no relief took place, I called upon my friend 
Mr. Lawson, veterinary surgeon, of this town, and requested 
him to see the case with me, which, with his customary good 
will, he at once did. The tube had now been in from three 
to four hours, and still no relief was afforded. I removed the 
tube in Mr. Lawson's presence, and placed my hand over 
the aperture, so that he might observe the case in its extreme 
severity. The roaring through the windpipe and nostrils 
was so distressing, that he suggested that the tube should be 
at once put in again. He considered the operation was an 
imperative necessity; and, notwithstanding that it still ap¬ 
peared a desperate and hopeless case, he advised me to apply a 
blister along the whole course of the trachea, which was done. 
The following morning there was no abatement in the severity 
of the symptoms. I took out the tube, cleansed it, and again 
replacedit. At night there was still no improvement. I again 
took out the tube and replaced it as before; butit being thought 
that he breathed somewhat easier whilst the tube was out 
